Constructal design of gas-cooled electric power generators, self-pumping and atmospheric circulation
Abstract
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Rotating electric machines generate heat
volumetrically, and are cooled by forced convection aided by the self-pumping effect.
In this paper we focus on the fundamental relationship between the internal flow architecture
of the gas cooled winding and its thermal performance, which is represented by the
nearly uniform distribution of peak temperature throughout the winding volume. We
show that the cooling passages can be sized such that the volumetric cooling is most
effective. From this finding follows the number of passages and their distribution
through the heat generating volume. The principle is developed analytically, and it
is then validated based on numerical simulations of the cooling architecture. The
paper also reports the thermodynamics basis of the self-pumping effect, and its natural
occurrence as free convection in general, which includes atmospheric circulation.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15203Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2015.07.015Publication Info
Bejan, A; Lorente, S; Lee, J; & Kim, Y (2015). Constructal design of gas-cooled electric power generators, self-pumping and atmospheric
circulation. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 91. pp. 647-655. 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2015.07.015. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15203.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Adrian Bejan
J.A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Professor Bejan was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal 2018 and the Humboldt Research
Award 2019. His research covers engineering science and applied physics: thermodynamics,
heat transfer, convection, design, and evolution in nature. He is ranked among the
top 0.01% of the most cited and impactful world scientists (and top 10 in Engineering
world wide) in the 2019 citations impact database created by Stanford University’s
John Ioannidis, in <a href="https://urldefen

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